In the Nara Period, there were so many schemes and plots in the Japanese court that Emperor
Shomu said, “Y’all nuts”
and left the capital of Nara for 5 years.
He wandered around the country moving the capital to different places before finally
moving back to Nara.
Then in 749, he had enough.
He stepped down and became a Buddhist monk, leaving the throne to his daughter, Empress
Koken.
Now our story is about a series of events that almost toppled the Japanese Imperial
government and replaced it with a Buddhist theocracy.
It was mostly thanks to Empress Koken, but let’s set her aside for now and talk about
the two major powers in court at this time:
the Tachibana clan and the Fujiwara clan.
The Tachibana gained power after four prominent Fujiwara brothers died.
In the power vacuum, a man named Tachibana no Moroe arose to become the most influential
person in court.
He had a son named Naramaro, who did pretty well for himself too.
On the other side, we have Fujiwara no Nakamaro.
He was a rising star, mostly thanks to his powerful aunt, Komyo.
She had the title of kogo, or empress-consort.
It basically meant she was a non-ruling empress, and someone who gave birth to the heir of
an emperor.
Although Komyo had never ruled as Empress, she was a significant figure in court.
Her superpower was golden blood, because she was the daughter of Fujiwara no Fuhito, the
wife of ex-emperor Shomu, and the mother of the currently ruling empress Koken.
Auntie Komyo lifted Nakamaro up by his bootstraps by making him the head of a new government
office she created:
an office that managed the affairs of the Empress-Consort,
her affairs, she was the Empress-Consort.
This office became stronger and stronger, and she packed it with her Fujiwara brethren.
The new office soon became like the TSA PreCheck line for your career.
Nakamaro used it to fast track his career, skipping the traditional bureaucratic grind
to the top.
It became a way to bypass traditional governmental channels because it contained so many influential
people.
Nakamaro himself was as ruthless and politically savvy as his Fujiwara predecessors.
He had his sights set on Tachibana no Moroe, the most powerful man in court.
Moroe seemed like an okay guy.
He even passed some laws to help make life better for the common people.
So under Game of Thrones rules, he’s about to get his skull crushed like a walnut.
Allegedly, Moroe got a little tipsy at some party and started running his mouth against
the sitting Empress Koken.
Nakamaro got quite upset at this and publicly called for Moroe’s resignation, saying,
“Well, I never!
Criticizing the empress like that!”
Nakamaro and his allies also accused Moroe of plotting a revolt.
He wasn’t, but resigned anyways before the Nakamaro defamation train could run him over.
And so Tachibana no Moroe was no more.
His son, Tachibana no Naramaro, was pissed, and decided to plot a real coup to kill Nakamaro
and replace Empress Koken.
Unfortunately, the coup was like my workout routine, it ended before it started.
This is the problem with conspiracies, people have this hole on their faces where they can
exhale air against tissue folds to cause vibrations, producing sound waves that can be interpreted
by other people, triggering communication.
One of the people Naramaro tried to recruit told on him and the plan got out.
After some torture, the tissue folds of Naramaro’s conspirators vibrated like a Hitachi massager
on High.
Naramaro himself confessed, giving the lofty justifications rebels usually give.
The government was wicked, they created grand temples while the common people suffered,
blah blah blah.
Empress Koken was actually merciful and instead of execution, she sentenced the rebels to
exile.
But Fujiwara no Nakamaro was having none of it.
In a power move that went pretty much uncontested, he ordered the conspirators beaten to death
with wooden canes.
And thus the Tachibana are removed from our story.
Only from our story, mind you.
The Tachibana will continue to battle the Fujiwara for supremacy in the years to come.
Now our tale is left with three characters:
Fujiwara no Nakamaro, his aunt Empress-Consort Komyo,
and the current empress Koken.
Nakamaro became a big shot in court.
Apparently, the common people were unhappy with his ruthlessness because he had to pass
laws to appease the masses.
For example, he lowered the amount of time a person had to work for the government.
Nakamaro had military conquest on his mind.
He built military outposts up north to prepare for an invasion of Ezo, which is modern-day
Hokkaido.
Remember Japan did not include Hokkaido at the time.
He also drafted plans for an invasion of the Korean kingdom of Silla, and gave the order
to create a fleet of ships for this attack.
Of course, the invasion never came to pass.
Empress-Consort Komyo always had Nakamaro’s back, she seemed to be more important than
Empress Koken.
Together, Nakamaro and Komyo forced Koken to abdicate the throne in favor of their puppet
emperor Junnin.
Don’t get too attached to poor Junnin, he doesn’t do much.
Nakamaro was doing pretty well, until something happened.
His sugar-auntie, Empress-Consort Komyo, died.
Nakamaro thought that Retired Empress Koken would support him in her stead.
After all, Koken was Komyo’s daughter, his cousin.
But Koken had other plans.
After Nakamaro lost his Komyo-shield, Koken saw it as her time to shine.
Remember that she abdicated the throne to Emperor Junnin.
A few years after, she left the royal palace and moved to a Buddhist temple.
From there, she issued a badass, I-don’t-give-a-f--k edict:
From now on, the emperor will only
take care of minor state affairs.
I will handle all major affairs.
Then she placed her balls on the table and said,
“Come at me, bro.”
Human chess piece Emperor Junnin responded by slinking back into his room,
one square at a time.
Now you may wonder how Koken still had so much power even though she was no longer in
power.
You see, before this time, an emperor passed on the throne to another when he died.
In the Nara Period, the female empresses thought,
“Well that’s stupid,”
and passed on the throne before dying.
Much less trouble that way.
And when abdication became in fashion, it added a new presence in court:
the retired emperor or empress.
This person built a lot of influence and friends from years of emperoring.
Over time, the position of retired emperor would become even stronger than the actual
emperor.
Empress Koken used her influence to swat sad little Junnin aside and started doing some
actual ruling.
She handed her allies key government positions and started to pick at Nakamaro’s power.
Nakamaro felt his grasp on the court slipping, so he turned to a strategy that always works
in history, called
“Ughh, me kill!”
Join us next time to see the Ughh Me Kill strategy at work.
Hellooo.
If you like this video, please click the LIKE button, it really helps.
If you didn’t like the video, please click the subscribe button so you don’t miss more
videos.
And did you know that this video is part of a playlist?
Check it out.
I’ll see you over there.
Also I wanna thank our new patron this week, Horace Seymour.
I’d like to see more of YOU, Horace.
Sorry, you probably get that a lot.
Much love, guys, spread the knowledge!